Egyptian military institutes new media restrictions

September 13, 2011 2:41 PM ET

New York, September 13, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the new
measures taken by Egypt's
ruling military council. In recent days, the military announced that it would
actively enforce the Hosni Mubarak-era Emergency Law, which allows civilians,
including journalists, to be tried in state security courts. Other recent
anti-press measures include an Al-Jazeera bureau being raided and shut down,
the military announcing a "temporary freeze" on issuing licenses to satellite
television stations, and a foreign blogger being denied entry into the country.

"For months now, the ruling Supreme Military Council of the Armed Forces
[SCAF] has been going to great lengths to hamstring the media and snuff out
critical reporting," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem,
CPJ Middle East and North Africa program
coordinator. "As the self-proclaimed guardian of the revolution, the military
council ought to facilitate the work of long-silenced voices in the media instead
of shutting them down and threatening them with repressive state security
proceedings."

On Saturday, the SCAF announced that it will enforce the
Emergency Law, which allows civilians, including journalists, to be tried in
state security courts and detained indefinitely, the independent daily Al-Masry
al-Youmreported.
The announcement came despite the military's commitment to annul the law by
September--a core demand of the revolution. Under the law, security officials
would be allowed to take "legal procedures" to crack down on acts of "thuggery"
and could use "all legal powers to safeguard the country's security," Al-Masry
al-Youm said.

On Sunday, Egyptian police raided the Al-Agouza District offices
of Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr (Al-Jazeera Live-Egypt), an affiliate of the
Qatar-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera-Mubasher, shutting down their live,
around-the-clock broadcasts from Cairo,
Al-Jazeera reported.
Uniformed security personnel raided the bureau, seizing live broadcasting
equipment and detaining engineer Islam al-Banna, Station Director Ayman
Gaballah told CPJ. Al-Banna was released on Monday, the station's Cairo bureau chief, Ahmad
Zein, said in an interview with broadcaster ONTV. Gaballah said that the
channel continued to broadcast live from Doha.
Egyptian authorities on Sunday also stopped the station's live broadcasts from
another location at the Media Production City
outside Cairo.

Gaballah told CPJ that Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr began
broadcasting shortly after the former regime's fall in February and that they
had applied for a license six months ago but were repeatedly told by the
ministry that they could go on broadcasting without a problem since their
license would be issued "within days." Although the SCAF said the shutdown was
the result of the channel operating without a license, CPJ research indicates
that this was merely a pretext to silence the critical broadcaster. CPJ
interviews also indicate that at least a handful of other stations were given
similar instructions regarding their licenses and have operated in this manner
since February.

Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr had extensively covered the recent protests in front of Israel's
embassy in Cairo,
which had culminated in the ransacking of the embassy, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahramreported.

On Wednesday, the SCAF announced a "temporary freeze" on
broadcasting licenses for new satellite television stations, the news channel
Al-Arabiya reported.
The SCAF also assigned the Investment Authority, a government organ entirely
unrelated to the media, with taking legal action against satellite channels broadcasting
what it deemed could incite violence or "destabilize" the country.

In a separate anti-press incident, Imad Bazzi, the Lebanese
blogger who pens Trella.org and is the founder
of the Arab Blogging Forum, was denied entry at Cairo
International Airport
upon his arrival from Beirut
on Tuesday, local and human rights groups reported. After 10 hours of
questioning, Bazzi was deported, as he had reportedly been "blacklisted" as a
security concern, the Lebanese daily Al-Akbarsaid. In June, the journalist
had visited the jailed Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad, who has been
imprisoned since March 28 on charges of insulting Egypt's armed forces.

Egypt extends detention period for four journalists held as part of mass trial

August 21, 2018 5:16 PM ET

New York, August 21, 2018-- Egyptian national security prosecutors ordered four more journalists to be detained as part of a case in which more than a dozen journalists, along with academics and activists, are charged with belonging to a banned group and with spreading false news. The Committee to...

Egypt extends detention of five journalists

July 26, 2018 2:59 PM ET

Washington, D.C., July 26, 2018-- Egyptian national security prosecutors in the past two weeks prolonged the detention of at least five journalists, according to Egypt's Journalists' Syndicate, the local press freedom group Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), and news reports. Authorities accuse the journalists, who had been...

CPJ calls on Egyptian authorities to release journalists held on false news charges

July 10, 2018 11:31 AM ET

Washington, D.C., July 10, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Egyptian authorities to drop the charges against a group of journalists held in pretrial detention for false news and release the journalists immediately....

Egyptian authorities detain blogger Wael Abbas

May 23, 2018 4:06 PM ET

New York, May 23, 2018--Egyptian authorities should release immediately Wael Abbas, a blogger who has documented Egyptian police abuse, and end their senseless campaign against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police at dawn today detained Abbas at his Cairo home and took him to an...